On the Interpretive Work of Reconstructing Discourses and Their Local Contexts
Journal
Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
ISSN
1438-5627
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2013-09
Author(s)
Abstract
Many strands of discourse analysis conceive discourses as relatively large structural connections. They are thus able to comprehend seemingly scattered phenomena as articulations of macro-level structures. Their focus on the macro-level of analysis, however, comes often at the neglect of the local contexts in which discourses are reproduced and employed. Action and interpretation are not only instructed by discourses, but also by local systems of relevance of resilient groups, communities or organizations. In this article, we develop interpretive strategies to distinguish between discourses and their reproductive local context. Based on a case study that analyzes students' narrations about their experiences of the transformation process at a higher education institution in South Africa, we reconstruct the "ethnographic context" of these narrations. We demonstrate how the use of a specific discourse-thematically linked to "race" and "culture"-is shaped by local groups, in our case by student residences at this higher education institution. We frame our case in socialconstructivist terms and pursue a sociology of knowledge approach to discourse.
http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130342
http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130342
Language
English
Keywords
sociology of knowledge approach to discourse
sociology of the local
interpretive methodology
higher education
transformation
race
racism
culture
focus groups
secondary data analysis
ethnographic semantics
university
South Africa
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SHSS - Kulturen, Institutionen, Maerkte (KIM)
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Freie Univ. Berlin
Publisher place
Berlin
Volume
14
Number
3
Start page
1
End page
31
Pages
31
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
232801